Some BlackBerry users may still see e-mails coming in slowly as the system recovers, he said.

The major outage frustrated customers on nearly every continent who were unable to send and receive e-mails and text messages this week. It also comes at a bad time for RIM, which is facing increased competition from Android and Apple smartphones.

The death was announced by Apple, the company Mr. Jobs and his high school friend Stephen Wozniak started in 1976 in a suburban California garage.

Mr. Jobs had waged a long and public struggle with cancer, remaining the face of the company even as he underwent treatment. He continued to introduce new products for a global market in his trademark blue jeans even as he grew gaunt and frail.

He underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer in 2004, received a liver transplant in 2009 and took three medical leaves of absence as Apple’s chief executive before stepping down in August and turning over the helm to Timothy D. Cook, the chief operating officer. When he left, he was still engaged in the company’s affairs, negotiating with another Silicon Valley executive only weeks earlier.

Jobs had been suffering from various health issues following the seven-year anniversary of his surgery for a rare form of pancreatic cancer in August 2004. Apple announced in January that he would be taking an indeterminate medical leave of absence. Jobs then stepped down as chief executive in late August, citing his inability to “meet my duties and expectations” stemming from his illness.

In a statement, Apple said paid tribute to its one-time leader as ” a visionary and creative genius” adding that the world had “lost an amazing human being.”

According to a letter which was distributed to Apple employees, Apple CEO Steve Jobs is taking leave of absence from the because of a medical condition. This marks the second time in two years that Jobs will be taking time away.

“At my request, the board of directors has granted me a medical leave of absence so I can focus on my health. I will continue as CEO and be involved in major strategic decisions for the company,” Jobs says in the letter.

Tim Cook, Apple’s chief operating officer, will take control of the company in Jobs’ absence. Jobs says he has “great confidence that Tim and the rest of the executive management team will do a terrific job executing the exciting plans we have in place for 2011.”

Jobs’ letter continues with an appeal for his family’s privacy:

“I love Apple so much and hope to be back as soon as I can. In the meantime, my family and I would deeply appreciate respect for our privacy.”

Our client ACCESS has a cool, new Halloween app called Decoretta which is now available on the App Store for just $.99. There is also a free version available, Decoretta Lite.

Decoretta: Now Available

With this application, you can send anyone, anywhere in the world, a greeting card simply by using your iPhone. For Halloween, Decoretta is filled with templates featuring ghosts, pumpkins, gravestones and haunted houses.

Why spend the time going out, picking out a card, buying a stamp and mailing it! With Decoretta, getting your holiday greeting cards is fast, easy and painless! Decoretta works between iPhones, iPod touch and iPads.

In case you’re wondering, Decoretta isn’t just for Halloween. It will be updated for every holiday so you’ll be able to send greeting throughout the year from your iPhone for Christmas, Valentines Day, Easter and more!

Be sure to download the app and let me know what you think. Happy Halloween!

Apple plans to give iPhone 4 users a free case in hopes of satisfying concerns about the design of its antenna and signal problems.

CEO Steve Jobs made the announcement (click here for the live blog) during a press conference at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., Friday morning in response to a public-relations crisis over signal issues reported with the iPhone 4, which was unveiled in June. iPhone 4 owners will apply for the free bumper (a case that protects just the outer rim of the phone) online at Apple’s Web site, and owners who already purchased a bumper will get a full refund, Jobs said.

After days of being pilloried for the iPhone 4’s antenna problems, Apple CEO Steve Jobs took to the stage in Cupertino, California to respond. Jobs announced during the iPhone 4 press conference Friday that every iPhone 4 user will get a free Apple Bumper to help mitigate antenna problems. This will apply to every user who buys an iPhone through September 30. iPhone 4 owners who have already purchased one of the $30 bumpers will get a full refund. Users who don’t like the bumper solution and are still unhappy with the iPhone can bring it back for a full refund instead.

Apple will offer free cases to past and current iPhone 4 customers through September 30, and is offering a full 30-day refund to customers who have had signal loss issues with the iPhone and no longer want it.

“We’re not perfect, and phones aren’t perfect either, but we want to make all of our users happy,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs said.

Friday’s announcement follows a recent Consumer Reports blog post in which they said they could not recommend the iPhone 4 because of problems with the antenna located on the bottom left of the device.

“We’re not perfect, phones aren’t perfect. But we want to make all our users happy.” And with that uncharacteristically humble introduction, Steve Jobs offered what passed for Apple’s apology to iPhone 4 users who have encountered reception troubles and said they would receive free bumpers.

“We love our users. We try hard to surprise and delight them. We work our asses off and have a fun time doing it,” he said during a press briefing Friday morning at the company’s corporate headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. He later added: “When people are criticizing us, we take it really personally…maybe we should have a wall of PR people protecting us from that, but we don’t.”

A computer-crime task force made up of multiple law enforcement agencies searched Gizmodo editor and blogger Jason Chen’s house and car in Fremont, Calif., on Friday, according to a statement and search warrant documents provided by Gizmodo.

The warrant, issued by a Superior Court judge in San Mateo County, said the computers and other devices may have been used to commit a felony. Steve Wagstaffe, spokesman for the San Mateo County District Attorney’s office, confirmed the warrant’s authenticity.

Members of the Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team took several computers, hard drives, digital cameras, cell phones and other gadgets, plus Chen’s American Express bill and copies of his checks.

A search warrant posted by Gizmodo says police on Friday seized computers, cameras, hard drives, business cards and computer servers from the home of Jason Chen, the site’s editor who last week published details about Apple’s unreleased smartphone.

The warrant, issued by a judge in California’s San Mateo County, says police were able to raid Chen’s home because they had reason to believe his computers were used to commit a felony. The warrant makes specific reference to the unreleased iPhone 4 and gives police the authority to look for e-mails and other documentation related to the gadget.

Twitter creator Jack Dorsey has provided the public with the first public demonstration of his hotly-anticipated latest venture. The new venture is a device that will allow credit card payments by cell phone. And here’s the best part: it’s free!

Details of “Square” — a card reader which plugs into the headphone socket of most mobile devices — have been circulating on the Internet since it was announced earlier this month, but little has been known about how it works or who it was aimed at.

However, Dorsey — whose microblogging Web site has proved hugely popular but not hugely profitable since launching in March 2006 — gave no explanation on how he would make money from his new creation, beyond revealing there would be a per-transaction charity donation.

Square, a tiny cube about an inch in length, contains a magnetic strip reader that allows users to swipe and read credit cards, then deduct payment on or offline through a downloaded application that communicates with card issuers in the same way as retailer devices.

Customers then use their finger on the phone’s touch-recognition screen to sign their name to the transaction.